'Nutter' jibe earns Bayer's Schmidt two-match ban

Berlin - Bayer Leverkusen's Roger Schmidt was on Monday banned for two matches and fined €15,000 for calling an opposition coach "a nutter" during a Bundesliga match - his second indiscretion this year.

Leverkusen's head coach was handed the ban by the sports court of the German FA (DFB) after being sent from the playing area by the referee in Saturday's 3-0 home defeat after insulting Hoffenheim's Julian Nagelsmann.

"That was nothing, what sort of a nutter are you? Just shut your gob!" Schmidt was heard to shout in Nagelsmann's direction just after the half-time break, around the time Hoffenheim went 2-0 up.

Schmidt will be unable to have any contact with the team for half an hour before, during and after Tuesday's German Cup second-round match against Lotte and Saturday's Bundesliga match against VfL Wolfsburg.

"On a scale of one to ten, I would give a flat ten," Schmidt said when asked how unhappy he was with the decision.

The ban has come into effect having been part of a suspended sentence from February this year.

The 49-year-old was banned for three games, with a further two in the event of a repeat offence before June 2017, for refusing a referee's order to leave the sidelines during a 1-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund, which saw the game delayed.

Leverkusen's director of sport Rudi Voller has sought a meeting with the head of the disciplinary committee.